Farewell Hope, and with Hope farewell Fear

Where glowing embers through the roomTeach light to counterfeit a gloom…

And looks commercing with the skies,Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes.

Solitude sometimes is best society.

Awake, arise or be for ever fall’n.

Even the demons are encouraged when their chief is “not lost in loss itself.

They changed their minds, Flew off, and into strange vagaries fell.

Consult…/what reinforcement we may gain from hope,/If not, what resolution from despair.

Gratitude bestows reverence…..changing forever how we experience life and the world.

Books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay they do preserve as in a vial...

How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth,Stol’n on his wing my three-and-twentieth year!

Yet he who reigns within himself, and rulesPassions, desires, and fears, is more a king.

What think’st thou then of mee, and this my State,Seem I to thee sufficiently possestOf happiness, or not? who am alone From all Eternitie, for none I knowSecond to mee or like, equal much less.

Is this the region, this the soil, the clime,Said then the lost Archangel, this the seatThat we must change for heav’n, this mournful gloomFor that celestial light? Be it so since he Who now is...

And so sepúlchred in such pomp dost lie,That kings for such a tomb would wish to die.

I neither oblige the belief of other person, nor overhastily subscribe mine own. Nor have I stood with others computing or collating years and chronologies, lest I should be vainly curious about the time and...

Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.

The mind is a universe and can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.

He who thinks we are to pitch our tent here, and have attained the utmost prospect of reformation that the mortal glass wherein we contemplate can show us, till we come to beatific vision, that...

Many a man lives a burden to the Earth, but a good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, imbalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.

But first whom shall we sendIn search of this new world, whom shall we findSufficient? Who shall tempt, with wand’ring feetThe dark unbottomed infinite abyssAnd through the palpable obscure find outHis uncouth way, or spread...

Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie.

In yonder nether world where shall I seekHis bright appearances or footstep trace?For though I fled him angry, yet recalledTo life prolonged and promised race I nowGladly behold though but His utmost skirtsOf glory, and...

Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind.

For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay, they do preserve as in a...

How charming is divine Philosophy! Not harsh, and crabbed as dull fools suppose, But musical as is Apollo’s lute, And a perpetual feast of nectar’d sweets, Where no crude surfet raigns.

Infernal world, and thou profoundest HellReceive thy new Possessor: One who bringsA mind not to be chang’d by Place or Time.The mind is its own place, and in it selfCan make a Heav’n of Hell,...

th’ unconquerable will,/ And study of revenge, immortal hate,/ And courage never to submit or yield/ And what is else not to be overcome?

Where the bright seraphim in burning rowTheir loud uplifted angel trumpets blow.

Shalt thou give law to God, shalt thou disputeWith Him the points of liberty who madeThee what thou art and formed the pow’rs of Heav’nSuch as He pleased and circumscribed their being?

For so I created them free and free they must remain.

A broad and ample road, whose dust is gold,And pavement stars—as starts to thee appearSoon in the galaxy, that milky wayWhich mightly as a circling zone thou seestPowder’d wiht stars.

I will not deny but that the best apology against false accusers is silence and sufferance, and honest deeds set against dishonest words.

All is best, though we oft doubt, what the unsearchable dispose, of highest wisdom brings about.

But say I could repent and could obtaineBy Act of Grace my former state: how soonwould higth recal high thoughts; how soon unsaywhat feign’d submission swore: ease would recantvows made in pain, as violent and...

Our state cannot be severed, we are one,One flesh; to lose thee were to lose myself.

Thou therefore on these Herbs, and Fruits, and Flow’rsFeed first, on each Beast next, and Fish, and Fowl, No homely morsels, and whatever thingThe Scyth of Time mows down, devour unspar’d, Till I in Man...

Frei ist, wer der Vernunft gehorcht.

Every cloud has a silver lining

Here at lastWe shall be free;the Almighty hath not builtHere for his envy, will not drive us hence:Here we may reign secure, and in my choiceTo reign is worth ambition though in Hell:Better to reign...

A grateful mind by owing owes not, but still pays, at once indebted and discharged; what burden then?

Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph that liv’st unseenWithin thy airy shellBy slow Meander’s margent green,And in the violet-imbroider’d valeWhere the love-lorn nightingaleNightly to thee her sad song mourneth well:Canst thou not tell me of a gentle...

Immortal amarant, a flower which onceIn paradise, fast by the tree of life,Began to bloom; but soon for man’s offenceTo heaven removed, where first it grew, there grows,And flowers aloft, shading the fount of life,And...

Oh goodness infinite, goodness immense!That all this good of evil shall produce,And evil turn to good; more wonderfulThan that which by creation first brought forthLight out of darkness! Full of doubt I stand,Whether I should...

Father, I do acknowledge and confessThat I this honor, I this pomp have broughtTo Dagon, and advanc’d his praises highamong the Heathen round; to God have broughtDishonor, obloquy, and op’d the mouthsOf Idolists, and Atheists[…]The...

Not so on Man; him through their malice fall’n,Father of Mercy and Grace, thou didst not doomSo strictly, but much more to pity incline:No sooner did thy dear and only SonPerceive thee purpos’d not to...

The end then of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like him,...

A dungeon horrible, on all sides round, As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames No light; but rather darkness visible Served only to discover sights of woe

For Man to tell how human life began is hard; for who himself beginning knew?

Henceforth an individual solace dear; Part of my Soul I seek thee, and thee claim My other half: with that thy gentle hand Seisd mine, I yielded, and from that time see How beauty is...